1. Make a flavour baseAlways start by sauteing a diced onion, one diced stalk of celery, and for orange coloured vegetables like squash you can add a grated carrot. They can be sauted in a tablespoon of olive oil until the onions are transparent and the rest of the vegetables are tender. This is your flavour base.

2. Add 3 cups of liquid (chicken stock, vegetable stock, water) for an extra dash of flavour you can add a bouillon cube to the liquid.

3. Add your vegetablesFor dense vegetables like squash used four cups of cubed vegetables.For broccoli use eight cups of florets.Cook the vegetables in the liquid until tenderOnce done, puree the soup mixture with an immersion blender – a regular blender is fine as well.

4. Cream baseIn a separate pot make a roux using 2 tbsp of butter and 2 tbsp of flour. Melt the butter and whisk in the flour – continue cooking for a minute or two. This will ensure the flour does not have a ‘raw’ taste. Add 2 cups of milk and bring to an almost boil, stirring constantly, until mixture is thickened. You could also use cream for a richer soup. However, milk works well.

Add the cream base to the pureed vegetables and heat up. Season to taste and you are done! I haven’t tried it myself yet but I think it is possible to add plain flavoured soy milk instead of dairy milk, and if you wanted to leave it out all together you could add extra vegetables or a few potatoes to thicken the soup so that it can be entirely vegan. For another variation you can roast the vegetables before adding them to the stock for a richer flavour.